Sick
by PenNameShenanigans
Summary: The flu hits the DPD and no one is safe.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **An eagle eyed reader spotted a continuity error. The error has been resolved. Thank you for your keen eyes!

Sniffles

Annie Walker had a case of the sniffles. These were not the sniffles of fall allergies or a twenty-four hour bug. These were the sniffles of a Rudolph red nose and a box of tissues an hour. These sniffles meant business. So when Annie rolled into the DPD with a sore nose and an industrial sized box of tissues with aloe, her coworkers sent her sympathetic glances and stayed out of her way. All except Auggie Anderson, of course.

"Hey Annie," he greeted as he heard her gait. The sound was off; Annie was wearing flats instead of her usual stilettos and the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric meant that she was wearing pants. Auggie frowned as he took in her altered scent as well. The normal grapefruit was replaced by a hint of Robitussin and Vicks Vapor Rub. "Annie, are you sick?"

"No," she mumbled with an obviously runny nose. Auggie thought he could hear her nose dripping but decided that closer examination was not necessary. His heart hurt because his happy, bubbly Annie was reduced to mumbling. He heard a light thud and deduced that a box of tissues landed on his desk. A rustle of fabric later, and he felt Annie wobble to perch herself on her the spot on his desk he left clear for her to lounge on. He felt the weight shift again on his desk and a blow of the nose. Annie was definitely sick.

"Annie, I will not let you infect me!" he joked, making shooing motions with his strong hands. He heard her huff indignantly, but she grabbed the box and slid to the floor. "Jackass," she answered with a whine.

Auggie laughed at her, all the while carefully cataloguing the medicine he kept stockpiled in the second drawer down on the right. Annie had yet to find his at-work pharmacy and he did not think he had restocked it from the last time he was sick. Before she spun on her heel he murmured to her, "Let me know if you need anything."

Auggie heard shuffling feet stop at his desk around 2pm. A body colliding into his desk shook him from his reverie and he turned to the noise. "Auggie," he heard Jai Wilcox say as the field agent let out a small huff of air, "she wants you." He felt more than heard Jai pick Annie up and set her on the desk; Auggie only assumed that she was the body he heard collide with his desk. He also heard a rustle of fabric and a thwack that indicated she had halfheartedly smacked the suave agent.

"Really, Jai -" her tired tirade was broken with a sneeze. If that was all the more fight she was putting up with Jai manhandling her in the DPD bullpen, Annie must be seriously ill. A weak slap and a halfhearted scolding was not Annie's style even after getting blown up. Auggie knew in that instant that someone - probably Joan - had decided to send Annie home sick for the day and she wanted him with her.

"You brought me the infected one?" he joked as he quickly switched from his unclassified system to his classified system to log off. Satisfied that the classified side was secure, he removed the hard drive and switched back to the unclassified system to log that off as well. He heard Annie grunt, no doubt trying to get off of the desk, and felt additional weight on the piece of furniture as he assumed Jai pushed her back into place.

"Auggie, I'm fine," she started as the techie stood up. Leaning over to where he knew Annie was perched, he felt Jai back up as he grabbed the back of her neck with his right hand and brought her forehead up to his cheek. Her forehead was not only burning up, the skin on the back of her neck was sweaty and clammy. He grabbed Jai's forearm with his left hand, stopping him in his tracks.

"Could you call a cab, please?"

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Manhandling Annie was not an easy feat, even when she was sick. After Joan confirmed that Annie was in no uncertain terms to be home in bed for the next two days, it took all of Auggie's sweet talking and a promise from Jai to monitor all her cases before she would leave the bullpen. By the time the two left the gates of Langley to get into the taxi, Auggie was convinced that Annie would not stay awake for the ride home. She leaned heavily on his arm as she trudged through the parking lot and continued to lean on him during the twenty minute taxi ride to Auggie's apartment.

"Hey," he whispered when the taxi arrived out front. "C'mon, let's get you into bed." He quickly paid the taxi driver and more or less carried Annie out of the taxi. She continued to slug her way to the door and he truly felt sorry for her as he deposited her lithe body onto his overstuffed living room couch. She was miserable and he could do nothing to fix it. When she stressed over an operation, he could comfort her through it, and when she second guessed her relationship with Danielle, he could offer sage words and Patron. He never before witnessed Annie sick and was at a loss as to what to offer her to make it more bearable.

Quickly rummaging through his medicine cabinet, he found a box of NyQuil tabs. Grabbing the box, he ran water in a glass and brought it to Annie. "Open up," he sang as he tore open the foil backing of the medicine and grabbed for her hand. She moaned in reply. "Hey, pick your head up real quick, this will make it better," he cajoled. She put her face into his waiting left hand as she took the pills from his right one. Leaning over to the end table that held the glass of water, he placed it in her other hand. "Take this, and then you can lie back down." Annie complied and laid her head back down on the couch.

By the time Auggie returned from his mission of changing the sheets on his bed, Annie was fast asleep on the couch. He could not bear to wake her up; instead, he scooped her sleeping form up and walked back to his bedroom. It was times like these he appreciated the intoxicated stumbles from the living room to the bedroom he made because even carrying a sleeping woman was easier than that.

She stirred when he put her into the bed. He coaxed her into changing into his sleepwear - a pair of plaid boxer shorts and a white undershirt. He knew she could not relax in the business suit she was wearing and left to hang it up when he heard her voice.

"Snuggle me," she demanded sleepily. He hung the suit in his closet and sighed, placing another pillow under her head. He readily complied although he knew that she may not want it in the morning, and slid into bed next to Annie, happy to be able to do something to make her feel better. He refused to think about what this meant for them on a different level - him taking care of her, putting her in his bed, and her demands for such an intimate gesture. Instead, he worked an arm under her neck and smoothed her hair down until she fell back asleep.

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Auggie woke up to something extremely warm cradled in the pocket between his chin and shoulder. His right arm was asleep and a thin arm was thrown across his hip. He felt the tilt of Annie's pelvis cradling his right side and was surprised at the intimate position. Unconsciously, Annie had taken them to a whole new level of snuggling that would have blurred the lines irrevocably if she had not been so sick. Rubbing his left hand down her matted hair, he was loathe to wake her up but knew she needed another dose of medicine and perhaps a lukewarm bath.

The gentle motion caused her to snuggle her head farther into the crook of Auggie's neck and he wished vehemently that they had woken up in this position when Annie was not running a fever so he could enjoy the blonde in his arms. He gently shook her shoulder and whispered, "Wake up, sleeping beauty. Time for more medicine and a shower."

"Don't wanna," she mumbled half asleep into his neck. The feeling of her lips on his neck drove him insane with want, even though he knew it was not the appropriate time to let his baser urges come out to play. "Don't care," he laughed back as he wiggled his right arm out from under her body and sat up. Rubbing her face into the spot he vacated, Annie huffed. Auggie quickly walked to the living room to grab the NyQuil and refill the glass of water.

"Here," he thrust his hands out at Annie. He heard the creak of her sitting up in his bed and felt her sweaty hands take both the glass and the pills. After he was satisfied he heard her swallow, he held out his hands to take the trash and the glass. "Thanks," he heard her say as he walked out of the room.

"No problem, princess," he called back. The pet name slipped out of his mouth before he could realize it and he knew he was in trouble. Annie was too out of it to notice, but he had a feeling that if she were any more coherent she would call him on it. Returning, he grabbed a towel from the linen closet in the hall and held it up with what he knew to be a winning smile. "I think it's time for you to get a bath."

"What?" she answered him, not completely understanding. He took a deep breath and explained, "Well, not that you smell, but you're running a fever and you should probably jump in the bathtub to bring down the fever and just relax a little bit. I won't peek, I promise," he added with a smirk.

"Okay," she answered meekly. Auggie wondered if she would ever be this pliant again, which led him down a more carnal line of thought that would only make things uncomfortable for him in the immediate future. She followed him into the bathroom and watched him start the water and set out the towel for her. "When you're done, just holler and I'll bring you new clothes, okay?"

Annie replied in the affirmative and he left her to bathe in peace. After a half hour and not a peep from Annie, not even any splashing, he began to get worried. "Annie?" he queried through the door. "Annie?" he called a little louder. Sighing, he got up from his perch on the floor next to the bathroom door and grabbed the clean set of flannel pajama bottoms and undershirt he pulled out for her to wear. "I'm coming in there, and you're not going to like it," he yelled as he threw the door open.

"Huh?" he heard and realized Annie fell asleep in the tub. Of course she would, he thought wryly. Of course the woman of my dreams will fall asleep naked in my bathtub and be too sick for me to do anything about it properly. With a sigh, Auggie tapped his foot. "Clothes are on the sink. Dry off and put them on. I'll put the old ones in the wash." He bent down to pick up her clothes and leave the woman he assumed to be beautiful naked in his bathroom.

Annie let out another mighty cough from the bathroom as Auggie started the load of laundry. She had been coughing on and off throughout the day, but it had not sounded this bad. He wondered if that was why she smelled like Vicks Vapor Rub before and how she administered it herself. Wandering into his bedroom, he once again heard the hacking cough coming from the left side of the bed, her side as it would later become.

"Annie, want some water?" he asked. "Yes," she answered hoarsely. He left the room again, marveling at how easily he had become her own personal nurse and how much he did not mind it at all. "Hey Annie," he called, "you smelled like Vicks yesterday. Do you have any with you?"

"In my work bag," she called back. Auggie was smarter than to go through a woman's purse, even with the tacit permission she gave him, so he grabbed the whole bag on his way back from the kitchen. He plopped it down beside her and placed the water on the bedside table.

He heard her rummage through the bag and mumble "There you are!" to herself. He grinned as the floor reverberated as the bag hit the floor with a dull thud. When she was better, he would tease her mercilessly about her Mary Poppins bag. He smelled the harsh Vicks as she unscrewed the lid and only assumed that she was rubbing on her chest. She quickly capped the bottle but the smell of Vicks still hung in the air.

"Hungry?"

"No."

"Need more water?"

"No."

"Okay, I'm just going to -" Auggie trailed off. He didn't know what he was going to do. Leaving her in his bed seemed like the best option for his libido and his sanity, but after the incident in the bathtub he did not want to leave her alone for very long.

"Snuggle with me?" she asked carefully. He could sense the hesitation in her voice. She was more awake than last time she demanded he snuggle with her, and that somehow made all the difference in his head.

"Yes," he smiled, "I'm just going to snuggle with you."

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**A/N: **I hope you enjoyed my take on the Annie/Auggie relationship while being sick. I may write a second part where Auggie gets sick but I don't think I have a handle on him yet. Reviews are love.


	2. Chapter 2

Hangover - Auggie

August Anderson felt like he rode a nonstop Tilt-a-Whirl for hours with nothing but chili in his stomach. The nauseated feeling he got tripled when he tried to stand up on his own. His oldest brother was in town and allowed the seven years older Anderson to ply him with liquor at a tiny bar in Dupont Circle. The result was less than desirable for the blind CIA techie; he could not hold a candle to his former drinking prowess. It was not a matter of Auggie not drinking while his big brother was not around, it was a matter of how _much_ Auggie drank on a regular basis. While he occasionally crossed the line from tipsy into drunk at the tavern, it had been years since Auggie was what his girlfriend would so charmingly call "three sheets to the wind." In fact, the last time he was anywhere close to this level of intoxication was when the eldest Anderson visited him in DC three years prior.

"Less'go," Auggie slurred to his older brother. Aaron Anderson only laughed at his youngest brother; for all that Auggie was well muscled, he was still on the thin side and still could not hold his liquor. The older Anderson chuckled because family pride would not allow Auggie to slow down his alcohol intake despite knowing he sorely outmatched by his seventy pounds heavier older brother. Sibling rivalry was going to kick his butt. None of the Andersons could believe the youngest's relatively low alcohol tolerance as a CPA. Most CPAs went out drinking on an almost daily basis. Auggie was always slightly reserved, but Aaron did not fully understand until the thinner Anderson tried to get up from the table.

"Where next?" Auggie asked as he tried to slide his chair back. On the second try, he was successful in putting six inches between his admittedly fit abdomen and the table. Auggie's fingers grasped at air a couple of times until he could find the edge of the table to push himself up. He must have weighed more than it looked he did, because when he levered himself up out of the seat the entire table rocked onto two legs. The forgotten gin and tonics - well, cups of gin with a slight splash of tonic was more like it - slid across the table and onto the ground. Lucky for the boys, the waitress had switched them from glasses to plastic cups three rounds ago and the drinks simply sloshed onto the concrete patio.

"Home, little bro," Aaron laughed as he slung an arm around his brother's waist to keep him upright. Even with his eyesight, a drunken Auggie could barely stumble his way out of a paper bag, let alone far enough down the street to hail a cab. "Ooof," Aaron mumbled as Auggie let most of his weight on his brother. "You weigh a ton."

Auggie flashed him his trademark "oops-but-I'm-not-really-sorry" grin and took a few steps. His footsteps thudded heavily down the center walkway of the patio and Aaron's cheeks stained red. It was his own fault for tacitly challenging his brother and although he was embarrassed, it was worth it to see Auggie let it all go. After three of the gins-with-a-hint-of-tonic, Auggie opened up about his love life. It was the first time since the ugly break up with Natasha that Aaron heard of any woman, and from Auggie's description she was pretty much perfect. While Aaron looked for a cab to take them to Auggie's apartment, where he was crashing for the night, Auggie slipped a hand into his pocket and snagged his phone.

Hitting just two buttons, he slurred "Annieeeeeeeee," into the phone loudly. Aaron was momentarily mortified for Auggie. His little brother, at twenty-nine, was drunk dialing his new girlfriend. Drunk was not the word for it. He was shit-faced dialing his girlfriend at midnight during the middle of the week. Aaron should have known better than to let Auggie keep his phone as this was not the first time a severely inebriated Anderson brother tried to call the girl of his dreams. Lucky for this particular brother, she seemed to like him back.

"Hello?" Annie answered sleepily. Auggie knew that he told her that Aaron was in town, but highly doubted he forewarned her of the consequences of another Anderson male in the same city. "Aug, are you drunk?"

"Noooooooooooo," he drew out in response. He heard her sigh into the phone and shift it from one ear to the other. "Yeeeeeeeesh," he giggled a moment later. In the morning, he would bury his face in the pillow as Annie reenacted his slobbery affirmation. Even in his altered state, he knew she was shaking her head on the other end of the telephone.

"I'll be over," she replied and clicked off the line before he could tell her know. Flashing his brother a grin, he explained to the claw marks on his arm, "She's coming over."

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Annie's little red car was sitting out front of Auggie's apartment when the taxi cab pulled up. After the first corner, he started getting the spins and had to hang his head out the rolled down window to alleviate them. He stumbled out of the car and into Annie's waiting arms as Aaron paid the cabbie for his services. He could feel her struggling with his weight when he landed directly on her chest to chest. Placing a sloppy kiss on her cheek, he threw an arm around her and tried to pull her along with him.

"Aug, you can't even stand. How about you let me decide where we're going?" she asked. Her words sounded off to the blind man, but he could not place why. He squeezed her tighter, hoping that would make the nausea go away. Her hip kept bumping the side of the his thigh, momentarily distracting him from the dizziness assaulting him. When he had his eyesight, he would make it a point to keep his eyes open as much as he could when he had the spins and stay upright. Neither of those things seemed possible at the moment.

"Annie," he whined, "my stomach..." He felt her shudder under his shoulder and walk him to the house more quickly. He was glad that she was comfortable shoving her hands in his pocket looking for his keys. At another time, he may have teased her about just trying to get into his pants but the spinning sensation would not die. He heard a jangle and felt her pull his wrist across the threshold.

"Bathroom, Aug, we're going to go to the bathroom," she told him in what he picked up was the voice she used with Katia and Chloe when they were being particularly childish. He followed her meekly, listening to her direct his big brother to the kitchen. He also heard her curse under her breath in Russian about "drunk ass boyfriends" and "ridiculous".

"C'mon, baby, let's sit down in here," she told him as she gracefully pulled him to sit next to her on his bathroom floor, back against his overly large bathtub. He ruefully thought this was not how he wanted to get Annie on his bathroom floor but his drink-addled mind quickly let that go. He felt Annie's soft fingers on his forehead as he leaned his head on her shoulder. Quickly making the decision to never drink again, the nausea hit him even harder this go around.

"Aug? You're probably going to want to throw up. It's fine, don't fight it," he heard Annie murmur as she continued rubbing his hair back off of his forehead. Auggie knew in that moment that he had the most wonderful girlfriend he could ask for. Here she was, on a Wednesday night, sitting with him on the cold tile of his bathroom rubbing his head because he drank way too much. He opened his mouth to tell her this, but unfortunately he did not get the words out. Quickly, she started rubbing circles on his back as he emptied his stomach of all the remaining gin.

She kept rubbing circles on his back as he laid his head against the toilet seat. "So cold," he murmured, half asleep. Annie shook him, and handed him a glass of water Aaron must have brought her from the kitchen. She instructed him to drink it slowly and to chew the small pill she put into his hand. "What's this?" he asked.

"Chewable Flinstone vitamin. I swiped some from the girls when you slurred you were drunk."

"Why?"

"Silly Auggie. It will help with the hangover I know you are going to wake up with."

"Thanks, Annie. You're the best."

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Auggie woke to a number of striking sensations. The first was something cold and hard under his body, the second soft under his head, the third pushing against his feet, and the fourth a weight across his waist. And the pain. Oh, the pain, followed by another wave of nausea.

Sitting up quickly, he felt soft hands directing his face to where he could relieve himself of the last bits of his drinking binge the night before. He felt Annie's breasts against his back when she reached over him to grab what he thought was a glass and press it into his hands. Gulp, swish, spit. Gulp, swish, spit. "Thanks, Annie."

"No problem. You wanna try this 'sleeping in the bed' thing again?"

"What?" he queried. Then he put together the earlier sensations - the cold, hard object under his body was the tile floor of his bathroom and the softness under his head was a pillow he assumed his girlfriend swiped off his bed. He was curled into the fetal position with the bathtub at his feet and Annie draped over him, holding him on his side and cradling his battered, hungover body with her own as he slept. "Yeah, let's do that."

He heard the rustling of Annie's clothes and the gentle pull on his t-shirt. T-shirt? Annie must have changed him some time after he got home. Checking his watch, it chirped mechanically "Three twenty-four AM!" He let her lead him to his bed, refilling the glass with water from the bathroom sink on her way. She pushed him onto the right side of the bed, onto "his" side, and he heard her slide the pillow back onto the bed. A dull thunk let him know she put water on his night stand. He was embarrassed when he heard her feet creaking on the floor board and returned a couple seconds later to place something under where his face pointed. "Just in case," Annie murmured as she rubbed her hand through his shaggy hair.

He grabbed her wrist and placed a kiss on its palm. Smiling sleepily, he let go and felt her pat his shoulder. Instead of walking over to her side of the bed like normal, he felt his side of the mattress dip and Annie's taught stomach slide over his hip. Had he been in his right mind, he would have rolled onto his back along with her and run his hands up her body... She snuggled up behind him, effectively becoming the big spoon, and threw her leg across his hips. Her pelvis tilted him further over onto his side; he was balanced completely on his side with Annie pressing herself against his back in this manner.

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Auggie woke up to his alarm beeping obnoxiously and a massive headache. Fumbling for his alarm clock, he felt Annie's leg hitched over his hip, impeding his ability to stretch to the alarm clock on the far end of his night stand. Wiggling, he hit the "off" button and inched his fingers over to the glass he remembered Annie putting on the table. Switching the glass to his other hand, he gently slid her lithe arm from where it was wound around his chest and carefully rolled her onto her back. He sat up and chugged the glass of water, cataloguing his slightly queasy stomach and headache. Truth be told, it was not the worst headache he had after drinking.

Placing the glass carefully back on the night stand, he reset the alarm clock for a half hour later and snuggled back into bed. As he laid onto his back, he felt Annie's leg shift up over his side and her head on his chest. He twined his fingers with hers and pulled her in as close as he could get her. Kissing her forehead, he knew he could not let her go today, not just yet.

"How do you feel?" she asked sleepily. If Auggie managed four hours of shoddy sleep, she could not have gotten any more taking care of him. Smoothing her hair down, he answered her thoughtfully. "Hungover," he began, "but not nearly as bad as I should. Someone took very good care of me last night."

He felt her nod her assent into his chest and then rub her nose across his chest. It was something he noticed she did when she was trying to show him that she was close to him, he thought, or maybe just a sleepy burrow of her head. Either way, it made the hangover significantly less intense knowing that the gorgeous, sweet woman in his arms would still rub her nose on his chest after taking care of his drunk ass all night.

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**A/N: **I do not know what it is like to be blind and extremely inebriated. I do, however, know what it is like to be extremely inebriated and how your motor skills and dignity slip away. The bar that the Anderson boys are at does exist and it is known as one of the heaviest pours in all of DC by the locals. Many a wise person has fallen due to their famed "mixed" drinks.


End file.
